This paper reflects critically on the use of the term ‘craft’ within prehistoric archaeology and its recent rise to prominence within a variety of analytical contexts. Having briefly evaluated the way in which prehistorians employ craft, it moves on to consider the potential value that Craft Theory, a growing interdisciplinary body of literature relating to practices of making, might hold for thinking about prehistoric material culture within an archaeological context. Three case studies originating from Mesolithic Britain and Ireland are used as a vehicle to explore some of this potential in practice, before a broader discussion reflects on these initial efforts and sketches out other areas of interest for future research. The picture which emerges from this discussion is one of promise, within which prehistorians simultaneously draw from, and contribute towards, the ongoing interdisciplinary debates on craft in contemporary society.

In light of the enculturation of landscapes by ethnographically documented hunter-gatherers, we should expect Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to have endowed their early Holocene landscapes with meaning. Attempts to find evidence for this have focussed on the unusual and exotic – those aspects of the archaeological record that seem immediately unrelated to subsistence. In this contribution, I suggest that fireplaces, ubiquitous on Mesolithic sites and often swiftly passed over in site reports as evidence for cooking alone, had played a key role in the process of landscape enculturation. Although we cannot reconstruct the specific meanings once attached to early Holocene landscapes, by appreciating the social and cultural significance of fireplaces we gain a more holistic view of the Mesolithic than is currently the case, whether in those studies that focus on settlement and subsistence or those that cite examples of ritual. In the course of making this argument, I summarise the evidence for fireplaces from Mesolithic Britain, noting the need for more systematic reporting. Finally, I provide a case study from western Scotland that seeks to view a suite of fireplaces in the context of the landscape topography, early Holocene environments, subsistence economy, and by drawing on selected ethnographic analogies.

The number of Mesolithic structures known in Britain has significantly increased since 2000, providing new opportunities for economic and social interpretations of this period. We describe a further structure, represented by features from the Mesolithic site of Criet Dubh, Isle of Mull. We compare the inferred Criet Dubh structure to other Mesolithic structures from Britain, notably those described as ‘pit-houses’. We then consider the implications of the radiocarbon dates from such structures for the tempo of occupation and past settlement patterns. While the use of Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates has encouraged interpretations of prolonged occupation and sedentism, we propose alternative interpretations with patterns of intermittent occupation for Criet Dubh and the pit-houses, involving their re-use after extended periods of abandonment within a sparsely populated landscape. The ability to debate such interpretations reflects the transformation in Mesolithic research made possible by the discovery of such structures, the use of multiple radiocarbon determinations, the application of Bayesian analysis, and the exploration of associations between cultural and environmental change. These developments have made the Mesolithic a particularly innovative period of study.

Since its publication in 1954 Star Carr has held an iconic status in British Mesolithic archaeology. The original excavations at the site recorded a large assemblage of bone and antler tools from a sequence of peat deposits at the edge of the Lake Flixton. Over 60 years later this remains the largest assemblage of bone and antler artefacts of its date in Britain and has been an invaluable source of information for life in the early Mesolithic. However, the interpretation of this material has been the subject of intense debate, and the assemblage has been variously described as the remains of an in situ settlement, a refuse dump, and the result of culturally prescribed acts of deposition. Fundamentally, these very different ideas of the nature of the site depend on differing interpretations of the environmental context into which the majority of the organic artefacts were deposited. This paper presents the results of recent work at Star Carr that helps to resolve the debate surrounding both the context of the assemblage and the motivations that lay behind its deposition.

Archaeological fieldwork preceding housing development revealed a Mesolithic site in a primary context. A central hearth was evident from a cluster of calcined flint and bone, the latter producing a modelled date for the start of occupation at 8220–7840 cal bc and ending at 7960–7530 cal bc (95% probability). The principal activity was the knapping of bladelets, the blanks for microlith production. Impact-damaged microliths indicated the re-tooling of hunting weaponry, while microwear analysis of other tools demonstrated hide working and butchery activity at the site. The lithics can be classified as a Honey Hill assemblage type on the basis of distinctive leaf-shaped microlithic points with inverse basal retouch.

Such assemblages have a known concentration in central England and are thought to be temporally intermediate between the conventional British Early and Late Mesolithic periods. The lithic assemblage is compared to other Honey Hill type and related Horsham type assemblages from south-eastern England. Both assemblage types are termed Middle Mesolithic and may be seen as part of wider developments in the late Preboreal and Boreal periods of north-west Europe. Rapid climatic warming at this time saw the northward expansion of deciduous woodland into north-west Europe. Emerging new ecosystems presented changes in resource patterns and the Middle Mesolithic lithic typo-technological developments reflect novel foraging strategies as adaptations to the new opportunities of Boreal forest conditions. While Honey Hill-type assemblages are seen as part of such wider processes their distinctive typological signature attests to autochthonous, regional developments of human groups infilling the landscape. Such cultural insularity may reflect changing social boundaries with reduction in mobility range and physical isolation caused by rising sea level and the creation of the British archipelago.

This work provides new insights into human responses to and perceptions of sea-level rise at a time when the landscapes of north-west Europe were radically changing. These issues are investigated through a case study focused on the Channel Islands. We report on the excavation of two sites, Canal du Squez in Jersey and Lihou (GU582) in Guernsey, and the study of museum collections across the Channel Islands. We argue that people were drawn to this area as a result of the dynamic environmental processes occurring and the opportunities these created. The evidence suggests that the area was a particular focus during the Middle Mesolithic, when Guernsey and Alderney were already islands and while Jersey was a peninsula of northern France. Insularisation does not appear to have created a barrier to occupation during either the Middle or Final Mesolithic, indicating the appearance of lifeways increasingly focused on maritime voyaging and marine resources from the second half of the 9th millennium BC onwards.

‘Tilbury Man’ is the partial skeleton of an adult male found in 1883 during the construction of new docks at Tilbury, Essex, on the north shore of the Thames, approximately half way between London and the mouth of the estuary. At the time the find stirred considerable interest due to its depth of nearly 10 m, with the eminent biologist and palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen hailing it as being of Palaeolithic age, though most subsequent (and even contemporary) researchers assigned it to the early Holocene. AMS radiocarbon dating now places the skeleton in the Late Mesolithic, 6065–5912 cal bc. This paper presents the circumstances of the find, describes the surviving skeletal elements, including two healed cranial injuries, and places Tilbury in the context of what little is known regarding Late Mesolithic burial practices in Britain

This paper is based on the 2009 Europa lecture which concentrated on the issues surrounding the Early Holocene colonisation of Ireland and placed it both in a broader European context as well as asking why the initial settlement of Ireland should take place so late. It also reconsidered the reasons why there was a significant change in technology within the Irish Mesolithic. This paper suggests that over-emphasis has been placed on the Irish ‘Early’–Later Mesolithic change which had been thought to take place at a very specific point in time. Instead it is suggested that changes began to take place soon after settlement began in Ireland and that many of the classic Mesolithic type fossils, most notably microliths, began to vanish, perhaps around or just after 9000 years cal bp. It seems preferable to redefine the chronology of the Irish Mesolithic into two main phases the EARLIER and LATER Mesolithic with an, as yet undefined, chronological boundary between 8800 and 8600 cal bp. At the same time it recognises that there are significant changes (facies) within each of the major phases, some of which could even be regional. It should also be noted that not all of the facies need necessarily be associated with a distinct range of obvious type fossils.

Star Carr, North Yorkshire, has the largest deposition of Mesolithic antler barbed points in the country; in fact it accounts for roughly 97% of all Early Mesolithic barbed points known in Britain. There has been much debate about whether barbed point manufacture occurred at the site or elsewhere within the landscape but the process of manufacturing has never been examined in great detail. This paper presents a new evaluation based on analysis of museum collections, recent excavations and experimental work and concludes that there is evidence to suggest that the full manufacturing process took place at Star Carr.

This paper examines the spatial distribution of the human bone sample excavated from the Mesolithic shell midden site of Cnoc Coig on Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Although no burials were recovered the information from the apparently isolated bone finds has been significant. Two types of bone group are distinguished, one that resembles the widely reported ‘loose bone’ phenomenon that is widely recognised from European Mesolithic sites. The other, represented by two bone groups at Cnoc Coig, is, at this time, restricted to western Scotland. It is dominated by hand and foot bones and appears to represent purposive behaviour. We concentrate our discussion on the latter phenomenon and place it within discussion of the nature of the later Mesolithic in western Scotland.

A small-scale excavation, undertaken in advance of building works at Faraday Road, Newbury, Berkshire, encountered an apparently intact Early Mesolithic layer containing abundant worked flint directly associated with animal bones. The site lay on the floodplain of the River Kennet in an area already well-known for Mesolithic remains and certainly represents an extension of the site found at nearby Greenham Dairy Farm in 1963. The flint assemblage was dominated by obliquely-blunted microlithic forms accompanied by a restricted range of other items. The animal bones were, unusually, dominated by wild pig with clear evidence of both primary butchery and food waste. Spatial analysis of the bone and flint assemblages indicated discrete activity areas, possibly associated with hearths. Both pollen and molluscan data were recovered which, together with the results of soil micromorphological examination, confirmed an Early Holocene date for the formation of the Mesolithic layer. Radiocarbon dates place the site in the late 10th–early 9th millennium BP. The paper re-examines the nature of known Early Mesolithic activity in this part of the Kennet valley, with particular reference to the specific environmental conditions that seem to have prevailed. It is concluded that the Faraday Road site represents one part of a continuum of Early Mesolithic occupation that stretches along a considerable length of the floodplain, with each focus of activity witnessing repeated, but intermittent, occupation spanning a period of more than a millennium.

The purpose of this paper is to review the current evidence for plant use in Mesolithic Europe and to summarize its implications. In order to do so, four sources of data are examined: macrobotanical remains, palynological data, artefactual evidence, and the human biological record.

A prelimary survey of palaeobotanical evidence for plant use in the Mesolithic indicates that the evidence is far more extensive than expected hitherto and that accumulations of plant food, especially of nuts, point to their regular and extensive use. In those areas such as Britain, where a large number of fine-resolution palynological studies have been carried out, the incidence of clearance and burning phases seems to be too high to be explained by acts of nature alone. A good case can be made for deliberate forest clearance and the maintenance of a more open landscape by Late Mesolithic groups as part of a promotional strategy to increase the productivity of nut and fruit trees and shrubs, wetland plants, and possibly native grasses.

Artefactual evidence points to a widespread distribution of soil-working tools (hoes and antler mattocks), especially in temperate Europe, and to a greater than expected presence of reaping and grinding equipment, lending conditional support for the existence of a specialized plant processing tool kit for digging, reaping, and plant processing.

Palaeopathological evidence indicates the existence of a dietary pattern in the west Mediterranean making extensive use of starchy and carbohydrate foods which resulted in a high caries rate among the Mesolithic population of that area.

In discussing the signiftcanse of these four lines of evidence, it is argued that, by the Late Mesolithic, the patterns of plant use support the notion of wild plant food husbandry instead of the incidental and opportunistic use of plants for food which has implicitly been accepted as a norm for the Mesolithic in Europe. Three geographical areas can be identified with their specific pattern of plant use: temperate Europe, Mediterranean Europe, and the south-eastern Balkans/Pontic Steppe. The patterns of plant use suggested in this paper emphasize the additive nature of the adoption of the agro-pastoral Neolithic farming practices in Europe.

The existence of a ‘radiocarbon plateau’ at 9600 BP causes problems for early Mesolithic archaeology and palaeoecology, since events separated by up to 400 calendar years are not distinguished by radiocarbon dating. A new sequence of closely spaced radiocarbon accelerator dates from waterlogged deposits at the early Mesolithic site at Star Carr, Yorkshire, has enabled recognition of this plateau. It has been possible to ‘wiggle-match’ these Star Carr dates to the recently produced dendrochronological calibration curve for the early post-glacial period, providing an ‘absolute’ chronology for formation of the deposits. Associated high resolution palaeoecological analyses indicate two local phases of human activity, the lengths of which can be estimated from the calibrated time-scale. As far as we are aware, this is the first time that it has been possible to provide ‘absolute’ dates for human activity at an early Mesolithic site in Europe.

In the absence of direct evidence, archaeologists interested in the demography of stone age hunter-gatherer societies are forced to turn their attention to sites as the unit of analysis. The distribution of sites and their varying density across space and through time have been considered to be acceptable, proxy, population records (see for example Constandse-Westermann & Newell 1984,158–64). This note is a contribution to these studies, but one which is not based on the site as a unit of analysis.

Smith & Openshaw (1989) have argued that the conventional archaeological site is a poor unit of analysis in considering regional settlement patterns. It is poorly defined and the recorded distribution of sites is potentially subject to too much distortion by post-depositional factors such as geomorphological processes and landuse practices, and biases inherent in archaeological method.

Excavations were undertaken in advance of construction work at Newbury Sewage Treatment Works on the outskirts of Thatcham in Berkshire, close to the sites of previous excavations undertaken by Wymer and by Peake and Crawford. Worked flint of Mesolithic date was recovered from a sandy layer overlying river gravel in two distinct concentrations suggesting two distinct episodes. Use wear analysis of the flint suggests that the sites were used as home bases at which a wide range of activities took place, with an emphasis on the processing of plant foods. A 14C date of 9100±80 BP was obtained from a sample of hazel-nut shells from within one of the concentrations. Analysis of the soil and sedimentary sequence as well as the pollen indicates constantly changing localised environments in the early Holocene in the Thatcham area, with sporadic occupation by Mesolithic communities on the drier areas at the edge of the floodplain.

A contour map of part of the basin of the glacial Lake Pickering was constructed from surface and sub-surface levels. This map (figs 2, 3 and 4) gives a pictorial representation of the microtopography of the area and is amplified by an additional map (fig. 13) in which the margin of the organic deposits is given for the early Mesolithic period, based on evidence outlined below. A stratigraphical survey of the basin deposits shows that the infilling of the lake in the Devensian Late-glacial began largely with the deposition of calcareous muds. In the early Flandrian there followed a natural hydroseral development from open water to reedswamp and fen carr. Towards the end of the Boreal period and during the early Atlantic, a rise in water level was responsible for the replacement of fen carr by reedswamp. The rate of hydroseral development was affected by a progressive rise of water level. This has been determined (estimated) by radio-carbon dating the basal organic muds on the 23, 24 and 25 m OD sub-surface contours at eight sites within the study area. During the early Mesolithic (Godwin's pollen Zone IV, c.9600 BP)the water level in the basin was likely to have been in the range of 23–24.5 m OD. By reference to the dating evidence, including published pollen diagrams (Walker and Godwin 1954) and new data presented in Parts 2 and 3, the stratigraphical evidence is interpreted to show that there was considerable variation in the vegetation of the lake margin during the early Mesolithic period (pollen Zone IV). At Seamer Carr there was a large area of fen carr woodland with reedswamp fringing the open water. Star Carr had a much larger area of reedswamp, with open water close to the dry land in places, but with a narrow fringe of carr. The bed of the ancient River Hertford, which drained the basin, probably in the late Mesolithic, has been identified in two of the sections which traverse the basin.

A three-dimensional study of the vegetational history of Seamer Carr from the Devensian Late-glacial to the Atlantic period has been made with the aid of six sites in the main basin. Five of these are close to the margins of the organic deposits and the sixth is from deep basin deposits. The Godwin zonation scheme has been used to allow a direct comparison with the survey of Walker and Godwin (1954). A composite section through the basin deposits, based on the detailed contour plan described in Part 1, shows that, pre-Zone IV, the open water margin abutted the dry land, and that during Zone IV reedswamp and carr gradually filled in the edges of the lake. Large expanses of fen carr occupied Seamer Carr during Zone V, but a rise in water level during Zone VI was responsible for the area reverting to reedswamp. At the Boreal/Atlantic transition, coincident with the rise in the alder pollen curve, there is a thick band of highly humified, acid peat, full of microscopic pieces of charcoal. Analysis through this band at one of the specially selected sites on East Island produced evidence of local disturbance, seemingly anthropogenic, at the wetland margin. There were two other special sites in West Embayment that were sampled for pollen analysis. The first was located over a radiocarbon dated Zone II organic deposit, sealed beneath a Zone III calcareous sand layer. The second was located in a late Mesolithic organic mud radiocarbon dated to c. 8000 BP and containing an assemblage of microliths of late Mesolithic type, identified tentatively as a composite tool (A. David pers. comm.).

It is now some twenty years since Clark wrote his paper ‘A Microlithic Industry from the Cambridgeshire Fenland and other industries of Sauveterrian affinities from Britain’ (Clark 1955), and almost as long since he considered the cultural and chronological implications of flint industries with Trapezes—bitruncated blades—in North Western Europe (Clark 1958). Since then some 150 to 200 radiocarbon determinations have become available for the Mesolithic of this area—most particularly from Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain, with rather fewer from France. It is, quite deliberately, not the intention of this paper to attempt a detailed consideration, or presentation of all these new dates—not even for Britain where some sixty recent determinations and their associations will be the subject of a separate larger paper (Switsur and Jacobi, in preparation). More worrying, however, than this mass of new datings is a proliferation of new and mainly regional terms for stone industries, which, while believed to show sufficient diversity to demand such an extended nomenclature, are nevertheless obviously closely linked at the techno-complex level. It is then at this techno-complex level at which it is intended to work, and it is towards a simplified, or at least manageable, terminology that it is proposed to aim. The Key to the article will remain Britain in relation to the European mainland.

Microlithic industries have been known from the Pennines for several generations, and their stratigraphical position at the base of the peat was established by Dr H. Colley March in the Marsden area as long ago as 1883. Although many collections have been made, however, it must be confessed that much less scientific information has been gained from detailed observation than might have been. An outstanding exception to the general rule was the work of Francis Buckley of Greenfield on upland sites, mainly between 1250–1500 feet above sea level on the high ground west of Marsden, during the years immediately following the first world war. Of special relevance to the subject of the present paper was his recognition of concentrations of microlithic material in conjunction with remains of fire-places and his distinction of a basic typological division between ‘Broad-Blade’ and ‘Narrow-Blade’ microlithic industries in the Pennines. The first part of the present paper is concerned with the excavation of a settlement structure and with the description of the flint industry associated with it and the second deals specifically with the affinities of the Broad-Blade industry.

The acquisition of domestic animals was an epoch-making event in cultural evolution. When did man arrive at such a cultural standard that he was able to live in fairly peaceful coexistence with wild animals, and start the process of taming which finally produced genuine tame or domestic animals? It appears that for hundreds of thousands of years man lived as food-gatherer, hunter or fisherman without domestic animals of any kind. At least the presence of domestic animals was not shown in any of the many palaeolithic settlements known today, nor from the palaeolithic cave-drawings. Only from the Mesolithic is there the first certain, but weak evidence of any domestic animal and the finds show that the dog was among the first animals to be domesticated and attached to human settlements.

Among the oldest and best-known skeletal material of the domestic dog are the Danish finds from the Maglemosian settlements from the bogs at Mullerup, Svaerdborg, Holmegaard, Lundby and Aamosen near Halleby river, all in Zealand. Very few dog bones were found, although tens of thousands of bones have been excavated from these settlements. The dog bones, like those of other animals used for food, were very fragmentary, and several showed marks where they had been cut.

The Maglemosian settlements date from the Boreal period, pollen zones V and VI, i.e. they go back to the time when Denmark was covered with vast pine forests and was part of the European continent.